NATO confirms that North Korean troops have been sent to war in Ukraine

BRUSSELS –

NATO confirmed Monday that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia to help in its nearly three-year war with Ukraine, and some of them have already been deployed to Russia’s border region near Kursk, where Russia is trying to repel a Ukrainian advance.

“Today I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and North Korean military units have been deployed in the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters.

Rutte said the move marked a “significant escalation” of North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and represented a “dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

His comments came after a high-level South Korean delegation, which included top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats, briefed the alliance’s 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Rutte said NATO is “actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine and our Indo-Pacific partners” on the developments, and that he was expected to talk to the president of South Korea and Ukraine’s defense minister soon. “We continue to monitor the situation closely,” he said.

Adding thousands of North Korean troops to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will put more pressure on Ukraine’s tired and overstretched military and also stoke geopolitical tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the broader Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say .

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to reshape global power dynamics. He tried to build a counterweight to Western influence by hosting a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing intelligence reports, said last Friday that North Korean troops would be on the battlefield within a few days.

He previously said his government had information that about 10,000 North Korean soldiers were ready to join Russian forces fighting his country.

Days before Zelensky’s speech, U.S. and South Korean officials said there was evidence that North Korea had sent troops to Russia.

The United States said about 3,000 North Korean troops were sent to Russia for training.